==Phrack Inc.==
Volume One, Issue Five, Phile #7 of 12
Jester Sluggo presents
an insight on
Wide-Area Networks
Part 1
Part 1 contains information on ARPANET and CSNET.
Part 2 contains information on BITNET, MFENET, UUCP and USENET.
It is best if you read both files to better understand each other.
These files will cover general information on wide-area networks, (I.E.
ARPANET, CSNET, BITNET, MFENET, UUCP and USENET), but may contain information
in relationship with other networks not emphasized in these files. These files
are NOT a hacker's tutorial/guide on these systems.
ARPANET
~~~~~~~
ARPANET. The ARPANET, which is a major component of the NSFnet [National
Science Foundation Network], began in 1969 as an R&D project managed by DARPA
[Dept. of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency]. ARPANET was an experiment
in resource sharing, and provided survivable (multiply connected), high
bandwidth (56 Kilobits per second) communications links between major existing
computational resources and computer users in academic, industrial, and
government research laboratories. ARPANET is managed and funded by by the DCA
[Defense Communications Agency] with user services provided by a network
information center at SRI International.
ARPANET served as a test for the development of advanced network protocols
including the TCP-IP protocol suite introduced in 1981. TCP-IP and
particularly IP, the internet protocol, introduced the idea of inter-
networking -- allowing networks of different technologies and connection
protocols to be linked together while providing a unified internetwork
addressing scheme and a common set of transport of application protocols. This
development allowed networks of computers and workstations to be connected to
the ARPANET, rather than just single-host computers. TCP-IP remain the most
available and advanced, non-vendor-specific, networking protocols and have
strongly influenced the current international standards of activity. TCP-IP
provide a variety of application services, including remote logon (Telnet),
file transfer (FTP), and electronic mail (SMTP and RFC822).
ARPANET technology was so successful that in 1982, the Dept. of Defense
(DOD) abandoned their AUTODIN II network project and adopted ARPANET technology
for the Dept. of Defense Data Network (DDN). The current MILNET, which was
split form the original ARPANET in 1983, is the operational, unclassified
network component of the DDN, while ARPANET remains an advanced network R&D
tested for DARPA. In practice, ARPANET has also been an operational network
supporting DOD, DOE [Dept. of Energy], and some NSF-sponsored computer science
researchers. This community has come to depend on the availability of the
network. Until the advent of NSFnet, access to ARPANET was restricted to this
community.
As an operational network in the scientific and engineering research
community, and with the increasing availability of affordable super-
minicomputers, ARPANET was used less as a tool for sharing remote computational
resources than it was for sharing information. The major lesson from the
ARPANET experience is that information sharing is a key benefit of computer
networking. Indeed it may be argued that many major advances in computer
systems and artificial intelligence are the direct result of the enhanced
collaboration made possible by ARPANET.
However, ARPANET also had the negative effect of creating a have--have not
situation in experimental computer research. Scientists and engineers carrying
out such research at institutions other than the twenty or so ARPANET sites
were at a clear disadvantage in accessing pertinent technical information and
in attracting faculty and students.
In October 1985, NSF and DARPA, with DOD support, signed a memorandum of
agreement to expand the ARPANET to allow NSF supercomputer users to use ARPANET
to access the NSF supercomputer centers and to communicate with each other.
The immediate effect of this agreement was to allow all NSF supercomputer users
on campuses with an existing ARPANET connection to use ARPANET. In addition,
the NSF supercomputer resource centers at the University of Illinois and
Cornell University are connected to ARPANET. In general, the existing ARPANET
connections are in departments of computer science or electrical engineering
and are not readily accessible by other researchers. However, DARPA has
requested that the campus ARPANET coordinators facilitate access by relevant
NSF researchers.
As part of the NSFnet initiative, a number of universities have requested
connection to ARPANET. Each of these campuses has undertaken to establish a
campus network gateway accessible to all due course, be able to use the ARPANET
to access the NSF supercomputer centers, from within their own local computing
environment. Additional requests for connection to the ARPANET are being
considered by NSF.
CSNET
~~~~~
CSNET. Establishment of a network for computer science research was first
suggested in 1974, by the NSF advisory committee for computer science. The
objective of the network would be to support collaboration among researchers,
provide research sharing, and, in particular, support isolated researchers in
the smaller universities.
In the spring of 1980, CSNET [Computer Science Network], was defined and
proposed to NSF as a logical network made up of several physical networks of
various power, performance, and cost. NSF responded with a five year contract
for development of the network under the condition that CSNET was to be
financially self-supporting by 1986. Initially CSNET was a network with five
major components -- ARPANET, Phonenet (a telephone based message relaying
service), X25Net (suppose for the TCP-IP Protocol suite over X.25-based public
data networks), a public host (a centralized mail service), and a name server
(an online database of CSNET users to support transparent mail services). The
common service provided across all these networks is electronic mail, which is
integrated at a special service host, which acts as an electronic mail relay
between the component networks. Thus CSNET users can send electronic mail to
all ARPANET users and vice-versa. CSNET, with DARPA support, installed
ARPANET connections at the CSNET development sites at the universities of
Delaware and Wisconsin and Purdue University.
In 1981, Bolt, Beranek, and Newman (BBN) contracted to provide technical
and user services and to operate the CSNET Coordination and Information Center.
In 1983, general management of CSNET was assumed by UCAR [the Univ. Corporation
for Atmospheric Research], with a subcontract to BBN. Since then, CSNET has
grown rapidly and is currently an independent, financially stable, and
professionally managed service to the computer research community. However,
the momentum created by CSNET's initial success caused the broad community
support it now enjoys. More than 165 university, industrial, and government
computer research groups now belong to CSNET.
A number of lessons may be learned from the CSNET experience.
1) The network is now financially self-sufficient, showing that a research is
willing to pay for the benefits of a networking service. (Users pay usage
charges plus membership fees ranging from $2000 for small computer science
departments to $30,000 for the larger industrial members.)
2) While considerable benefits are available to researchers from simple
electronic mail and mailing list services -- the Phonenet service -- most
researchers want the much higher level of performance and service provided by
the ARPANET.
3) Providing a customer support and information service is crucial to the
success of a network, even (or perhaps especially) when the users are
themselves sophisticated computer science professionals. Lessons from the
CSNET experience will provide valuable input to the design, implementation,
provision of user services, and operation and management of NSFnet, and, in
particular, to the development of the appropriate funding model for NSFnet.
CSNET, with support from the NSFnet program, is now developing the CYPRESS
project which is examining ways in which the level of CSNET service may be
improved, at low cost, to research departments. CYPRESS will use the DARPA
protocol suite and provide ARPANET-like service on low-speed 9600-bit-per-
second leased line telephone links. The network will use a nearest neighbor
topology, modeled on BITNET, while providing a higher level of service to users
and a higher level of interoperability with the ARPANET. The CYPRESS project is
designed to replace or supplement CSNET use of the X.25 public networks, which
has proved excessively expensive. This approach may also be used to provide a
low-cost connection to NSFnet for smaller campuses.
/
\
/ luggo !!
Please give full credit for references to the following:
Dennis M. Jennings, Lawrence H. Landweber, Ira H. Fuchs, David J. Faber, and W.
Richards Adrion.
Any questions, comments or Sluggestions can be emailed to me at Metal Shop,
or sent via snailmail to the following address until 12-31-1986:
J. Sluggo
P.O. Box 93
East Grand Forks, MN 56721